Teams Searching for 20 Hostages Taken in Malaysia
Rescue teams searching Southeast Asian seas Monday zeroed in on a band of heavily armed assailants who had stormed one of the world’s top diving resorts and sped off in boats with 20 hostages.
An American couple, James and Mary Murphy, both 51, of Rochester, N.Y., escaped the Sunday evening abduction on lush Sipadan Island in eastern Malaysia by refusing to swim out to the kidnappers’ boats and then hiding overnight in bushes.
The other hostages are two French tourists, three Germans, two South Africans, two Finns and one Lebanese, as well as a Filipino worker and nine Malaysians.
Although the defense minister said Monday that a team had determined where the hostages were being held, the Semporna police chief said today that authorities had yet to pinpoint the abductor’s hide-out.
Malaysian police said they suspected that political motives were behind the attack.
Meanwhile, a Philippine Muslim rebel group’s claim of responsibility today was met with skepticism.
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